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How to say it in Scots: Tartan

This week some of the 22m Americans who claim Scottish descent will be celebrating Tartan Week. But what of tartan itself? A Dictionary of the Older Scottish Tongue cites French sources and posits an origin from Persian “tatar”, meaning a precious cloth. The earliest recorded occurrences in Scots date from the 16th century, the most intriguing of which describes a man’s loss when a “styrk (bullock) gnew and spylt his tartan quhilk wes worth fyf merkis” (Records of Inverness, 1567-1568).

In 1745, the Caledonian Mercury advertised a “Great Choice of Tartans, the Newest Patterns”, but only a year later, after Culloden, the wearing of tartan was banned by an act of parliament. Only with the visit of George IV to Scotland was tartan rehabilitated and “the Celtic Society, dressed in proper costume, who formed his Majesty’s body guard, have combined to excite much curiosity among all classes, to ascertain the